The voice of Aretha Franklin—unmistakably familiar for its depth, range, and emotional power—has shaped American soul and pop music since her first commercial success in the late 1960s. Merging her childhood interests in gospel singing—both of her parents were gospel singers and her father was a renowned preacher—with jazz, rhythm and blues, and pop music, Franklin came to be known as “Lady Soul,” belting out a string of early number one hits including “Respect” (1967) and “Since You’ve Been Gone” (1968). Considered to be one of the greatest singers of all time, Franklin is the winner of eighteen Grammy Awards and was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987).

As a poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has suffered the fate of many popular writers: a voice of its time frequently lacks staying power. Thus this mild romantic whose life in Cambridge was placidly comfortable has been eclipsed by his "darker" contemporaries such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. The jogging rhythms of "The Song of Hiawatha," "Paul Revere's Ride," and other Longfellow ballads are quaint artifacts of bygone New England. Longfellow frequently overstates his poems' moral points, perhaps because he sensed that pragmatic Americans wanted art they could use for self-improvement. Nonetheless, he was the country's first professional poet because he had the literary knowledge and craftsmanship necessary to write verse about America that was comparable in quality to that of his English contemporaries.

Provenance

Purchased from Douthitt Galleries by Julia Livingston Delafield Longfellow in 1945; upon her death in 1963, given to son, Livingston Longfellow; upon his death in late 1963, given to sister, Elizabeth Longfellow Curtis; given to son, Thomas Pelham Curtis II in 1984; given to daughter, Elizabeth Longfellow Kohler on March 10, 2010; gift to NPG in 2017

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine; 2017 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Object number

NPG.2002.TC4

Exhibition Label

2017 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Born Taichung, Taiwan

David Ho, M.D., has been at the forefront of HIV/AIDS research since the 1980s, shortly after the virus’s discovery. He and his colleagues launched a clinical trial in 1995 that focused on HIV’s so-called dormant phase, during which it would continue ravaging its victims without presenting them with any symptoms. The team developed antiretroviral treatments that can reduce HIV in the bloodstream, and because of their efforts, it is possible for carriers today are often able to live longer by better controlling the virus.

In Gregory Heisler’s photograph of Ho, the doctor examines an enlarged image of an HIV-infected T-cell, where the red coloration indicates the presence of the virus. The portrait was used on the cover of Time in 1996, when Ho was deemed “Man of the Year” by the magazine. As the recipient of many honors already, including the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001, Ho continues his search for an HIV vaccine.

Carolina Herrera's interest in fashion dates back to her childhood, when she began making dresses for her dolls. Even at an early age, she was not afraid to experiment. As a friend recalled, "if the dress was supposed to button in the front, she would try it on backwards." Herrera was reared in a socially prominent family and married into wealth. For a number of years, the elegant flair of her wardrobe won her a place on the world's best-dressed list for women. In 1981 Herrera took the advice of friends and launched her own line of ready-to-wear women's clothing. The venture succeeded quickly, and today her designs are distinguished for their clean elegance of line, fine fabrics, and comfort. Herrera's noted clients have included Nancy Reagan, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Caroline Kennedy.

One of the most innovative dancers, directors, and choreographers of our time, Bill T. Jones’s performances are eloquent expressions of movement and thoughtful thematic meditations. Since founding a dance company with his late partner Arnie Zane in 1982, Jones has used dance to explore contemporary ideas about identity, race, and sexuality. He often focuses on themes of grief and death, especially in his acclaimed 1994 performance “Still/Here,” which included the participation of terminally ill men and women. His recent “Analogy Trilogy” explores his family’s stories, including those of his mother-in-law, a Holocaust survivor; and those of his nephew, a promising dancer and performer who is now grappling with AIDS-related illnesses. Jones has received a MacArthur “genius” award, two Tony Awards, the National Medal for the Arts, and many other honors.

“Hammering” Hank Aaron is one of the greatest baseball players in major league history. He was scouted at sixteen and played in the Negro leagues before signing with the Milwaukee (later Atlanta) Braves, for whom he debuted in 1954. A perennial All-Star and the league MVP in 1957, Aaron was remarkably consistent: in a twenty-three-year major-league career he never hit more than fifty homers in a season but always ranked near the top of the hitting statistics. A compact six-footer, Aaron generated tremendous bat speed with his extraordinary reflexes. In 1974 he broke Babe Ruth’s record of 714 career home runs; Aaron’s chase of Ruth’s record was widely celebrated as a sign of racial progress in the New South. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1982, Aaron has had an estimable post-baseball career doing charitable and civic work in Atlanta and Milwaukee.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of the Academy of Achievement/Wayne and Catherine Reynolds; 2015 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Object number

NPG.2015.15

Exhibition Label

2015 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

As a student at Yale University, Maya Lin (born 1959) redefined the conventional notion of a heroic war monument with her understated and controversial design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Her work has continued to gain international attention, including large-scale installations such as Storm King Wavefield and what she describes as her “last memorial,” an environmentalist multimedia project titled What Is Missing.

Karin Sander’s diminutive 3-D scanned portrait reflects the architect’s sense of herself as a small part of a global environment. Like so many of Lin’s own designs, the unconventionality of this portrait invites the viewer to look more closely and see the sitter in a new way.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the artist; 2017 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Object number

NPG.2015.6

Exhibition Label

2017 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Born Atlanta, Georgia

Spike Lee is an innovative and provocative filmmaker with no qualms about confronting hot-button issues of race and class in his feature films and documentaries. In 1986, he scored an indie hit with his first full-length motion picture, She’s Gotta Have It. Written, directed, and produced by Lee (who also played one of its characters), the film was shot in under two weeks on a budget of $175,000 and earned more than $7 million at the box office. Having received wide critical acclaim since the 1980s for his original, pioneering work, Lee has since brought varied projects to the screen, including Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), and Bamboozled (2000). His probing documentaries include 4 Little Girls (1997), an examination of the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006), a study of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating impact on New Orleans and the federal government’s inadequate response to the tragedy.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, the Shenson Foundation, in memory of Ben and A. Jess Shenson; 2015 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Object number

NPG.2015.89.2

Exhibition Label

2015 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Although his memory of the incident was erased, after-action reports confirmed that on November 21, 2010, in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, the young lance corporal William “Kyle” Carpenter saved the life of a fellow Marine by using his own body to shield him from an exploding grenade. The grievously wounded Carpenter was not expected to survive, but after more than thirty surgeries and two-and-a-half years at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he was released in July 2013. In recognition of his “undaunted courage, bold fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of almost certain death,” Carpenter received the nation’s highest military award for valor—the Medal of Honor—in 2014. Medically retired because of his injuries, Carpenter remains active on issues concerning wounded and returning veterans.

In the first of these two images, Carpenter holds his Purple Heart medal in his right hand. In the second, his Purple Heart tattoo is visible, as are some of the scars he now carries.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the generosity of Eugene Eidenberg; 2017 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Object number

NPG.2017.17

Exhibition Label

2017 Portrait of a Nation Prize Recipient

Born Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)

As a child, Madeleine Albright and her family fled Prague twice, first at the outbreak of World War II and again after the 1948 communist-backed coup. They eventually settled in the United States, where Albright went on to earn a PhD from Columbia University’s Department of Law and Government.

In 1997, Albright was sworn in as Secretary of State, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. Quick-witted and strong-willed, she faced political adversaries and negotiated complex treaties. She is known to have employed her collection of brooches as a form of diplomatic communication, as with the pin she wears in this portrait. Given to her by the widow of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Albright wore dove-shaped brooch while engaging in Middle East peace negotiations.

Albright has recently authored several autobiographies and texts on foreign policy, and in 2012, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.